In honor of Halloween, some paranormal books I'd like to see ...
Happy Halloween!
Comments
Thanks for some smiles this morning, Michael! "Irreversible Mind: A Compendium of Skeptical Arguments Against Everything," with that little girl, is especially cool.
I get the feeling you enjoying putting book covers together—maybe even have a little practice in it.
Nice ones, Michael! Quite a few chuckles to be had here. Though when you think about it, that 'Life after life after life' one is pretty horrifying. Live a hard, brutal life, die, and then repeat over and over. Far scarier than any monster movie Hollywood can make.
How about the New York Times bestseller "Many Wives, Many Masters”The true story of a prominent polygamist, his young wives and the years of therapy required to restore his mental health.
- AOD
"Dogs That Don't Care When Their Owners Are Coming Home" - The groundbreaking canine study that reveals your dog is just pretending to love you. And why should he anyway?
I found an article that's pretty close: https://www.indy100.com/article/is-there-an-afterlife-life-after-death-impossible-scientist-claims-8043746
"The physics of daily life are completely understood". No they aren't, or science would have discovered everything and would then stop. "We haven't found spirit particles" - you're the one claiming spirit would BE particles, and there are still plenty of hypothetical quantum things which haven't been demonstrated yet. Gah, I'm a biologist, not a physicist, and I can tear this argument down with the three words "no they aren't"!
"The physics of daily life are completely understood".
Although this may be true, this does not exclude the existence of an afterlife because the physics of the afterlife can occur at subquantum levels, not at macroscopic levels. Then the argument is refuted. Besides that it is purely theoretical and does not say anything about the evidence on this subject.
How can we understand something like quantum physics? Niels Bohr said "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet." and ""Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real."
We may understand Newtonian physics or 19th century physics but the new physics, the physics of the quantum world is so profound and weird that there is no way for us here in this reality to really grasp what is going on. We may think we understand it but there are still things going on "someplace else" that we will never be able to understand. We may be able to do the math and be able to predict what will happen at a macro level but in the quantum world there are things going on that we will never be able to understand.
Sub atomic particles can do strange things like appear and disappear, communicate with each other at vast distances, and sometimes even seem to be interacting with the people who are studying them. They sometimes appear as a wave and sometimes as a particle and it seems to have something to do with consciousness but exactly how we don't know.
It is the height of arrogance to say that we completely understand physics. We don't. String theory is still being studied and so is holographic theory. For all we know we may be living in some kind of strange holographic projection and nothing that is "here" really originates from here. Our existence may merely be a holographic projection from someplace else and this someplace else has its own agenda.
"The physics of daily life are completely understood".
The sort of remark we hear from those who pretend that those aspects of daily life we *don't* understand (like dreams of the future and other forms of ESP) are unreal.
I find " science would have discovered everything" very amusing. "Science" is just human beings trying to understand an extremely complicated universe that seems to get more complicated the more one looks at it. At one point, they thought the world was flat, and smoking wasn't harmful.
Excellent comment, Art. I find myself reflecting a lot that what I think is real isn't really real, at least in the sense that I think it's real, and the more I know, the more I realize that I don't know.
As former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeild put it:
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know."
Kathleen that reminds me a quote, "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." (Arthur Eddington, a famous physicist)
I remember reading an NDE of a Catholic priest and in his NDE description he said, "Everything I have written and believed up to this point is so much dross."
"The sort of remark we hear from those who pretend that those aspects of daily life we *don't* understand (like dreams of the future and other forms of ESP) are unreal."
The interesting thing is that it can be true that the physics of daily life is completely understood, that is, the Newtonian and chaotic physics, and even so, phenomena that we do not understand can happen like psychic phenomena, because all psychic phenomena can be effects of quantum physics or hypothetical quantum gravity on the macroscopic level.
My thought was "you'd better hope it isn't completely understood or there goes your grant money since you'll have nothing left to do".
This is a couple weeks late for Halloween and I'm pretty sure it's fake but it's suitably creepy and I've always felt winter is a great time for ghost stories anyway: https://storify.com/moby_dickhead/dear-david
Very interesting Chel! I copied the last photos into Photoshop and adjusted the contrast and brightness. There was something there. It looked like a doll however with a bashed in head. Difficult to believe that this is a photo of a spirit/demon but maybe so! - AOD
I am comfortable saying that I'm completely agnostic about the survival of consciousness after physical death.
I'm also comfortable saying that there is absolutely no doubt that "Dogs that don't care when their owners are coming home" is the absolute best title in the otherwise excellent list above.
It is also objectively true to say - "Many wives, many masters" ain't that far behind :)
Thanks for some smiles this morning, Michael! "Irreversible Mind: A Compendium of Skeptical Arguments Against Everything," with that little girl, is especially cool.
I get the feeling you enjoying putting book covers together—maybe even have a little practice in it.
Posted by: Bruce Siegel | October 31, 2017 at 03:02 PM
Those are hilarious!
And for the sinners out there: "Stop Worrying: There Probably Isn't an Afterlife."
Posted by: Kathleen | October 31, 2017 at 07:12 PM
Nice ones, Michael! Quite a few chuckles to be had here. Though when you think about it, that 'Life after life after life' one is pretty horrifying. Live a hard, brutal life, die, and then repeat over and over. Far scarier than any monster movie Hollywood can make.
Posted by: Ian | October 31, 2017 at 07:33 PM
Fave: This House Isn't Haunted!
Lulz, fun stuff! :)
Posted by: Matt Rouge | October 31, 2017 at 10:42 PM
LOL!
Posted by: Eric Newhill | October 31, 2017 at 11:14 PM
All of them were good, but Irreversible Mind takes the prize. It would actually make a really good book, with the same cover.
Posted by: Rabbitdawg | November 01, 2017 at 03:36 AM
Very funny. Lol
You could include the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Rejection.
Posted by: Paul | November 01, 2017 at 03:59 AM
Very good Michael. I like "Seth Shuts Up". All are very funny. Thanks Michael.
Posted by: Amos Oliver Doyle | November 01, 2017 at 09:05 AM
Wonderful ,How about, The Templars did not know Sh*t
Posted by: Stephen D Echard | November 01, 2017 at 03:55 PM
How about the New York Times bestseller "Many Wives, Many Masters” The true story of a prominent polygamist, his young wives and the years of therapy required to restore his mental health.
- AOD
Posted by: Amos Oliver Doyle | November 02, 2017 at 07:39 PM
The Archaic Records. An extensive record of trivial meaninglessness fro the past.
Posted by: Kris | November 02, 2017 at 08:28 PM
What about "DEATH AFTER LIFE: Inspiring stories of people who became 'clinically dead'... and remained that way"? Sounds like an uplifting read.
Posted by: Luciano | November 05, 2017 at 02:19 AM
I like all these suggestions, but I think Death After Life is my favorite ... at least so far!
Posted by: Michael Prescott | November 05, 2017 at 11:08 AM
"I think Death After Life is my favorite"
Ha, wait 'till you read it...
Posted by: Luciano | November 05, 2017 at 03:49 PM
Bamboozled By The Light!
A railway worker, near death during an asthma attack, learns that the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
Posted by: Bruce Siegel | November 06, 2017 at 11:36 PM
Here's one: "Turn out that damn light, I'm trying to sleep!! -- How to draw boundaries when YOU are being pestered to death by the spirit world!"
Posted by: Lloyd | November 06, 2017 at 11:49 PM
Or this:
Dogs That Know Too Much
True stories of pets who've mastered simple explosive devices and their terrified owners.
Posted by: Bruce Siegel | November 07, 2017 at 12:17 AM
Add then there's Sheldrake's other masterwork:
The Presence Of The Pissed
A look at the striking predominance of angry people in today's society and what it means.
I'm with you, Michael—it's hard to stop playing this game once you get started. :)
Posted by: Bruce Siegel | November 07, 2017 at 01:01 AM
"The Sense of Being Laughed At" - a trailblazing psi researcher discusses his reception at mainstream scientific conferences.
Posted by: Michael Prescott | November 07, 2017 at 11:31 AM
"The Sense of Being Laughed At"
Good one, Michael! We're on a Sheldrake roll.
Posted by: Bruce Siegel | November 07, 2017 at 01:14 PM
"Dogs That Don't Care When Their Owners Are Coming Home" - The groundbreaking canine study that reveals your dog is just pretending to love you. And why should he anyway?
Posted by: Kathleen | November 09, 2017 at 05:09 PM
That's the best, Kathleen! - AOD
Posted by: Amos Oliver Doyle | November 10, 2017 at 01:42 PM
I found an article that's pretty close: https://www.indy100.com/article/is-there-an-afterlife-life-after-death-impossible-scientist-claims-8043746
"The physics of daily life are completely understood". No they aren't, or science would have discovered everything and would then stop. "We haven't found spirit particles" - you're the one claiming spirit would BE particles, and there are still plenty of hypothetical quantum things which haven't been demonstrated yet. Gah, I'm a biologist, not a physicist, and I can tear this argument down with the three words "no they aren't"!
Posted by: chel | November 10, 2017 at 02:36 PM
Genius. Thank you Michael. :-)
Posted by: Michael Duggan | November 10, 2017 at 08:20 PM
"The physics of daily life are completely understood".
Although this may be true, this does not exclude the existence of an afterlife because the physics of the afterlife can occur at subquantum levels, not at macroscopic levels. Then the argument is refuted. Besides that it is purely theoretical and does not say anything about the evidence on this subject.
Posted by: Juan | November 11, 2017 at 04:20 AM
How can we understand something like quantum physics? Niels Bohr said "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet." and ""Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real."
We may understand Newtonian physics or 19th century physics but the new physics, the physics of the quantum world is so profound and weird that there is no way for us here in this reality to really grasp what is going on. We may think we understand it but there are still things going on "someplace else" that we will never be able to understand. We may be able to do the math and be able to predict what will happen at a macro level but in the quantum world there are things going on that we will never be able to understand.
Sub atomic particles can do strange things like appear and disappear, communicate with each other at vast distances, and sometimes even seem to be interacting with the people who are studying them. They sometimes appear as a wave and sometimes as a particle and it seems to have something to do with consciousness but exactly how we don't know.
It is the height of arrogance to say that we completely understand physics. We don't. String theory is still being studied and so is holographic theory. For all we know we may be living in some kind of strange holographic projection and nothing that is "here" really originates from here. Our existence may merely be a holographic projection from someplace else and this someplace else has its own agenda.
Posted by: Art | November 12, 2017 at 09:51 AM
"The physics of daily life are completely understood".
The sort of remark we hear from those who pretend that those aspects of daily life we *don't* understand (like dreams of the future and other forms of ESP) are unreal.
Posted by: Bruce Siegel | November 12, 2017 at 01:54 PM
I find " science would have discovered everything" very amusing. "Science" is just human beings trying to understand an extremely complicated universe that seems to get more complicated the more one looks at it. At one point, they thought the world was flat, and smoking wasn't harmful.
Excellent comment, Art. I find myself reflecting a lot that what I think is real isn't really real, at least in the sense that I think it's real, and the more I know, the more I realize that I don't know.
As former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeild put it:
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know."
Posted by: Kathleen | November 12, 2017 at 06:23 PM
Kathleen that reminds me a quote, "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." (Arthur Eddington, a famous physicist)
I remember reading an NDE of a Catholic priest and in his NDE description he said, "Everything I have written and believed up to this point is so much dross."
Posted by: Art | November 13, 2017 at 12:30 AM
Nice quote from Rumsfield Kathleen. - AOD
Posted by: Amos Oliver Doyle | November 13, 2017 at 08:08 AM
"The sort of remark we hear from those who pretend that those aspects of daily life we *don't* understand (like dreams of the future and other forms of ESP) are unreal."
The interesting thing is that it can be true that the physics of daily life is completely understood, that is, the Newtonian and chaotic physics, and even so, phenomena that we do not understand can happen like psychic phenomena, because all psychic phenomena can be effects of quantum physics or hypothetical quantum gravity on the macroscopic level.
Posted by: Juan | November 14, 2017 at 07:18 AM
My thought was "you'd better hope it isn't completely understood or there goes your grant money since you'll have nothing left to do".
This is a couple weeks late for Halloween and I'm pretty sure it's fake but it's suitably creepy and I've always felt winter is a great time for ghost stories anyway: https://storify.com/moby_dickhead/dear-david
Posted by: chel | November 15, 2017 at 03:01 PM
Very interesting Chel! I copied the last photos into Photoshop and adjusted the contrast and brightness. There was something there. It looked like a doll however with a bashed in head. Difficult to believe that this is a photo of a spirit/demon but maybe so! - AOD
Posted by: Amos Oliver Doyle | November 15, 2017 at 06:19 PM
For a funnier relevant thing, check out #3 on this list: http://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-159-18-ad-campaigns-built-straight-up-sexism/
Posted by: chel | November 20, 2017 at 05:33 PM
I am comfortable saying that I'm completely agnostic about the survival of consciousness after physical death.
I'm also comfortable saying that there is absolutely no doubt that "Dogs that don't care when their owners are coming home" is the absolute best title in the otherwise excellent list above.
It is also objectively true to say - "Many wives, many masters" ain't that far behind :)
Posted by: ian | December 04, 2017 at 12:15 PM